The majority of the church is asleep. There, I said it.
The church is asleep to prayer, holiness, evangelism and to its first love. The modern-day church has succumbed to the spirit of the world: lukewarmness, carnality and worldliness prevail. Churches have become allergic to elementary teachings like repentance and, sadly, many who are spiritually asleep don’t even know it.
On this week’s Fire Starter podcast, Keith Collins and I talk about revival and the symptoms of a Christian who has spiritually fallen asleep. We also explore his recently released book: Samuels Arising: Waking Up to God’s Prophetic Call.
In Samuels Arising, Keith Collins describes the Samuel Generation: “Today’s church looks better than ever on the outside. Our meetings are polished. Our media are masterful. Our sanctuaries are adorned with lights, smoke machines and giant screens—but underneath the vain sheen of success, numbers and accolades, millions of professing Christians are asleep.”
First Samuel 3 contains the familiar story of Samuel’s encounter with the voice of God. Eli, the high priest and Samuel’s mentor, had knowledge of God, but he had walked away from Him. Lesson to be learned: We can know about holy things, but not know holy God.
The boy Samuel was asleep; as the pulpit goes, so goes the pew. Sleepy preachers yield sleepy Christians. Three times, God spoke Samuel’s name: “Samuel!” God’s voice was so clear, the boy initially thought it was Eli calling him. After God called to Samuel for the third time, he realized it was Yahweh’s voice, and he responded.
Just as Samuel awoke to God’s voice, so an entire generation of Christians needs to wake up to things of God. God is calling. Are you listening?
For more about why we need to wake up to God’s voice, listen to this week’s Fire Starter podcast.
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